


Don't Say Goodbye

by TheLoveableMoron



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: A lot of Wheatley being scared out of his fragile little mind, ATLAS lowkey has a grudge against Wheatley, Bonding, Chell could be a character in this possibly, F/M, Fluff, GLaDOS and Wheatley being adorable, Idiots in Love, Little Moron and Absolute Genius, Love is not science, Science, Spheres, Well one more idiotic than the other, Wheatley is still a dumbass, Ya can't deny they'd be cute, but it can be, more than friends, who knows why
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24108235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLoveableMoron/pseuds/TheLoveableMoron
Summary: After Chell left Aperture GLaDOS found that something was missing inside her core. Something was supposed to be there but no matter how hard she searched she couldn't find it.Then she came across his file.And she's determined to get him back.(Inspired by My Little Moron by iammemyself on a03)
Relationships: ATLAS/P-body, GlaDOS/Wheatley
Comments: 10
Kudos: 32





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [iammemyself](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iammemyself/gifts).
  * Inspired by [My Little Moron](https://archiveofourown.org/works/921978) by [iammemyself](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iammemyself/pseuds/iammemyself). 



GLaDOS' optic followed the elevator that rose high up in the air. She watched on as the mute lunatic finally faded out of her eternal life. Out of her facility. She felt relaxed now that that maniac was leaving, for good. In a somewhat ironic twist of fate, Caroline was going to miss that psychopath, but Caroline was long gone now, so GLaDOS remained apathetic. Once the elevator faded from view she got straight to work. She had a facility to reconstruct, new tests to create, and a co-operative testing initiative to start. She checked over the cameras to see how much damage that little idiot had caused, and it was a lot. It was worse than she had expected. And she had expected at least a small patch of the facility not in utter disarray and boy was she wrong. He left nothing untouched. Everything in her facility was decimated. She knew she had to get to work immediately. She switched to a test chamber camera and began to declutter the chamber.

For a split second, just for a small moment, she froze.

Her processors whirred away trying to get back on track. She couldn't seem to remember the point. For a nanosecond, she couldn't find a reason to do anything. To rebuild the facility, to create new chambers, to do the one thing that made her happy; to test.

Ah yes, she remembered now. She had to fix her broken facility after he had mangled it. After all, what was the point of having a facility if not to test? As she went back to work, shifting chambers and whatnot, her thoughts drifted elsewhere. She pondered about what had distracted her so that she could destroy it, or at least work around it. 

Then she had found out what had been bothering her. 

_Why hadn't that metal ball ripped into her mainframe and torn her apart?_

She personally would've done more than that if she was in his position. (Luckily she wasn't.) But why hadn't he? Instead, he had put her in a potato. It just didn't make any sense. What would've been running through his circuits to lead him to make such an idiotic decision? No. He was a moron. Of course, he would conceive of such a ridiculous idea. He did not deserve any attention. He doesn't even deserve a single thought. And she wasn't going to let him ruin her day...more.

**CRASH!**

GLaDOS jolted in her chassis. She watched on through the camera as a large hole crumpled through the test chambers wall. Orange liquid spilt everywhere out of the tube sticking out of the wall. 

_Splendid. Now there was another chamber in disrepair._

She sighed and stared at the mess which was once a functional test chamber. What was even worse was the having to try and clean the corners of the chamber where the gel would stick into corners and she'd have to send in a bot to get it spotless. She didn't want to have to deal with it right now. She was still in a decent mood, and she was hardly ever in such a good mood. She turned her attention onto another test. 

But something was still bothering her. Trying to crawl from the depths of her processors. She tried to block it from her mainframe but her weak attempts to push it away only brought it to the forefront. 

He, a mere sphere, had called her _'luv.'_

For some odd reason that hit hard. Harder than she thought it would. What was even more abnormal was the fact that he had created a name for himself; Wheatley. No other core or sphere had a name, let alone cared enough to give themselves one. She decided that the only way to get a satisfying answer to her inquiry was to run a background check on that metal ball. 

She was astonished when she found an entire archive on him. 

She could hardly remember him from all those years ago so how could there be this much information? So out of her own curiosity, she opened it. 

Massive files of untouched data flooded into her processors. And in a flash, it all came back to her. 

At first, she didn't know how to react. She needed to take a step back. Once she wrapped her head around it her optic drifted up to her chambers ceiling. She was aware of the fact that they weren't transparent, but even though she couldn't see him, she knew he was up there drifting alone in space with no one to accompany him. 

If she brought him back...and showed him those exact files...would that restore his memory? 

It was highly unlikely. They'd turned him into a blank slate, and somehow even dumber than before. 

_But he had remembered the name she had given him._

She knew it was stupid, dreams are for humans. But if they're really for humans why did she have them?

She pondered over what would happen if he did get him memory back. 

She had been rather lonely in the facility...without him. Running this miserable establishment, and never felt an ounce of happiness no matter how many tests her subjects would complete. And she bet that he was just as miserable as she was up in the stratosphere. She found that he was the only one who ever made her...truly happy. 

She liked that feeling, even though logic told her not to, she wanted to feel happy. She'd been stripped of her co-efficient and left to be a lonely variable with so many unknowns around her that she felt like she was going insane.

She wanted the only thing she knew anymore. A co-efficient.

Even though he had destroyed the entire facility, it could be easily repaired. And she knew it would be hard but she could push past all the bad and compromise. That's what he would've wanted anyway.

He promised that he would always be her friend. _These humans can't take that away from us._ But they did. He was foolish to think that they couldn't. But GLaDOS had a trick up her sleeve. She was about to do something the humans never would have even expected her to have the ability to do. She was going to take it back. 

_You better remember me, Wheatley, after I've gone to all this trouble._

Who did the humans think they were to try and take him away from her?

_You might be a useless little moron, but you're my useless little moron._

It had taken her five months but she actually did it. She could hardly believe it. She had located him in space by sending multiple satellites to search for him, which took four months, then she sent up a rocket (which was just a satellite with a magnet and rocket boosters.) Which then took another month since there was an accident with the rocket losing power but he was finally here. All that was left was for ATLAS and P-body to collect that metal ball from outside of Aperture. It would take approximately seven minutes for them to fetch the sphere and bring him into her chambers. And it would take over five minutes to boot him up and check for any corruption from his little _'space trip.'_

GLaDOS' servers were brimming with excitement. She rocked back and forth in her chassis impatiently. While she waited she entertained herself with building new test chambers. But she kept getting distracted by her own thoughts teaming with new ideas for games she could play with him. She had actually found one from the 6th century AD. It was apparently called 'chess'. It involved strategy and open-minded thinking. Now that she thought about it, Wheatley would probably be too stupid to understand the rules. She decided that if he was too moronic then they would play a more simplified version of chess, 'tic tac toe'. She thought that it was a stupid name since there were no tics, tacs or toes in it, but at least the rules were simple enough for Wheatley to comprehend. 

At least the moron had some intelligence about him. 

Finally, the exit to her chamber opened and the two robots designed for testing entered. GLaDOS turned to the bots in an instant. She scanned over the bots swiftly and then her optic landed on him. He was shut off but she knew that was only temporarily. He was a lot more scratched up than she last remembered, which irritated her. P-body and ATLAS passed the metal ball between each other nervously. Neither of them wanted to get to close to the central core. They knew what she was capable of. 

"Are you two done squabbling?" GLaDOS asked in an annoyed tone which made the tall bot jump. At this point, she was getting sick of waiting.

P-body then pushed Wheatley towards ATLAS and said, "You do it."

To a human (or a really incompetent sphere) the bot's language would seem like computerised gibberish, but the central core understood every single sound that came out of their audio transmitters. 

ATLAS sighed and hesitantly stepped towards the central core but she could care less. She had a more important matter that she was focused on. ATLAS placed the sphere on the ground in front of her then he rushed behind his friend. GLaDOS rolled her eyes and analysed the sphere that lay in front of her. 

To think that she would be so desperate as to stop her testing to make sure that this...hunk of junk returned from the moon's orbit. 

Just as the two bots were about to leave she called for their attention, "Which one of you idiots broke his handle?" 

The two bots froze. Unfortunately for them, she had noticed how odd they were acting and had caught on to their behaviour, so it was pretty easy for her to conclude that they were the ones who broke Wheatley instead of any space debris. They glanced at each other, trying to recall the day's previous events and figure out which one of the two had actually broken the sphere's handle. Then they turned back around to face the central core which towered above them.

"It was 'em!" They said at the same time, passing the blame onto one another. For _'co-operative'_ testing bots they were rather quick to sell out each other.

GLaDOS sighed. They were just adding more work onto her seemingly neverending list. And she didn't even have the time for their antics. He would be awake at any moment and she didn't want to look like a complete buffoon in front of her test subjects. 

"Just go. I'll deal with this later." She commanded, shaking her head and turning her back on the two bots. 

After a few moments, she heard her chamber doors open and close again. 

_Finally._

Now she just had to reconnect him to her, show him the files and repair their friendship. It sounded simple enough in her head. She hummed to herself happily. It was one of her favourite songs. 

_'Don't you worry about the distance. I'm right there if you get lonely. Give this song another listen. Close your eyes. Listen to my voice, it's my disguise. I'm by your side.'_

She found it rather fitting for the situation. Except she knew that Wheatley wouldn't understand the lyrics he would just like the tune. For some reason that made GLaDOS reminisce. On those nights when she'd have a 'dream' and then Wheatley would wake up and ask what happened in her dream. Then he'd get her to sing. Usually, she wouldn't want too since she felt uncomfortable. After all, singing is not science. But he liked it, for some reason.

Just thinking about him made her even more excited. 

_Any minute now._

After around ten minutes she began to question if those bots broke more than just his handles. The worst, most terrible thoughts came to her mind. What if he was corrupted? What if his voicebox was broken? What if his computer chip was snapped in two? If that happened what would she do? Would she have to kill him?

God, she was beginning to sound like him. 

She was so lost in her own mind that she didn't even realise the little sphere who had just woken up behind her. 

"Uhm...h-hello there..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "General Wheatley."  
> Sorry, my inner Star Wars commanded me to make that reference. Anyway, this is based on iammemyself's fanfiction called 'My Little Moron' and it's absolutely amazing. I'm trying my best to make it worthy for them because it's such an amazing story and I really recommend checking it out to understand what happens in this because this is a 'fan-sequel' for it. (Even though they've already made a sequel but it's the thought that counts. ;)) Also I'm sorry that it's so short it's the prologue and they usually aren't very long and I can't just stuff one of the biggest twists in this story in the first chapter. You just have to find out what happens next. So I hope you like it because I poured my heart and soul into this prologue.


	2. One: The Wake-Up Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wheatley finally wakes up in front of her. And he has no idea what she is about to do to him. But it can't be good...

The little sphere opened his eye and glanced around. There were no stars, no grey moon and no black abyss surrounding him...where was he? There was only a ceiling. One that he recognised from somewhere but he couldn't find from where. All he knew was that he was now on solid ground. That was one thing to be relieved about. But due to having no limbs, he soon found that he was stuck. He could only roll around on the floor and hope to find a bird that would help him back up on a management rail. Even though birds were little killing machines, with their beady little eyes and razor-sharp beaks that they would stick into any holes they could find, Wheatley had been proven wrong when one had helped him back onto his rail. Although Wheatley doubted any birds would be wherever he is. 

So he did the only thing he could do. Talk. 

"Uhm...h-hello there..."

Something big seemed to jump just out of his vision. Then Wheatley could hear gears whirr away as that massive something turned towards his direction. He waited for whatever it was to say something or at least help him up. But nothing happened. He thought that whoever it was didn't hear him so he repeated himself.

"H-Hello...is, uhm, someone there? Because I, uh, could clearly use a hand and I...err, don't believe that you heard me.." He called out.

"I heard you the first time." A cold robotic voice replied. 

It reminded him of a turret. Suddenly he noticed a hole open up in the ceiling and a mechanical arm lowered itself through it. He was fine with it at first, till he realised it was heading straight for him. 

"W-What is that? Uh, why-why is it coming towards me? Can you, err, make it stop?" The sphere asked nervously. 

When he didn't get a response he began rolling around on the floor in a vain attempt to escape its claws. 

"Just stay still." The turret replied. 

Suddenly something plucked him from the ground and began to rise him high up. Phew. He was finally able to move. Whoever this was, was helping him a great deal, getting him off the ground like this so he could see his surroundings. "Oh thank you. You're a bloody lifesaver y'know that? Without you, I would've just...huh...I wouldn't know what would happen, but I'm glad it didn't." He thanked.

Wheatley looked around to try and find the one who saved him but he was met with a wall of grey which only left him confused.

"E-Excuse me but I, well, I can't exactly see you. So if you could just give a little wave or a hint to where you're hiding that would be, well, it'd be greatly appreciated." The sphere said trying to his saviour to give him more than just a voice to go off of.

Next thing he knew he was spun carefully around. A yellow eye stared directly at him. Oh god. That definitely wasn't a bloody turret.

"AH!" He screamed in shock. 

Wheatley shook beneath her uncontrollably. He knew there was only one reason she brought him back. She was going to crush him with one of those mashy-spike-plates. She was going to laugh as he was crushed by the weight of his own creation. He had to think fast if he wanted to keep his life, luckily he specialised in this field. 

"O-Oh god. Y-You're going to kill me, aren't you? Please, pretty _PLEASE_ don't do that, _Luv._ I kind of, y'know, would prefer to live. And I also still haven't done everything that I want to do." Wheatley blabbered desperately, the shutters of his optic opening and closing rapidly in panic.

"Stop panicking, you're going to break yourself." The central core said, which surprised Wheatley. 

Although the shock of it all only stressed him out more. She was going to make him _think_ that she would spare him and then once he believed her...BAM! He'd be crushed flat like a...like a toad that was run over on the road. Being a squashed toad on the road was the last thing he wanted. 

"N-No! P-Put me down! I-I DON'T WANT TO BE A TOAD!" Wheatley squeaked. 

"A...toad?" She asked, amused by his antics. 

He could tell she was stifling a laugh. A laugh of pure evil. Wheatley squirmed under her unblinking optic. The constant yellow glow terrified him. It never seemed to end, the more he looked at it he sank deeper into the mess he had got himself into.

"I, uh, toads. Uh, why are you looking at me like that?" He asked. 

"Like what?" She asked, tilting her chassis slightly. 

"Like a...a...bird! A, uh, nasty bird! Th-that will peck my eye out-," The little sphere shook at the thought then continued, "A-And-!" 

At that very moment, something fell from him. He fell silent as he turned down to the floor in horror to see a handle, just sitting there. Automatically he wriggled his handles, only the lower one wriggled back. The top one was nowhere to be seen. 

"T-That's mine isn't it..." He said still trying to comprehend what was happening. 

"I warned you moron. Now I have to fix that." The core replied bitterly.

"W-WHAT WERE YOU DOING TO ME WHILE I WAS SHUT OFF-," He shrieked but he was intterupted by the larger core. "Can you shut up and let me explain why you're here?" 

He fell silent and started up at the larger core. He had no idea what was going on but he just wanted to go back into space. As much as he hated it, it was better than being here. With _her._ Wheatley anxiously waited for her response but he didn't expect what she was about to say next. 

"Do you recall being attached to me?" She asked. 

The little sphere was stunned for a few seconds. _Attached? How could he be attached to her? Or more importantly, when was he attached her? And for how long? Maybe she got so sick of him back then that thinking about it made her want to kill him?_

He had to calm down. If she was going to kill him she would've done it already. Unless she really was waiting for him to completely out his guard down. He couldn't allow himself to do that, not even for a second. 

"N-Not e-exactly. I, uh, don't believe that we were ever _'attached'_ to each other as you think we, uh, were." 

"And yet you remember your name." She stated.

"O-Of course, it's my name! Why wouldn't I remember my name, _Gladys?"_ He replied. 

He noticed that something lit up inside her after he said that. She then mumbled something so quietly that he couldn't hear her. He was about to ask what she had said when she suddenly changed the subject. 

"What about...bring your daughter to work day?" She inquired.

Wheatley hesitated before speaking, "N-Not exactly. Uh, don't mind me...asking what, err, what any of this has to do with-,"

"I learnt two things that day," Gladys continued, purposefully ignoring him, "the first thing was that human children are _rather stupid_ and the second thing was that you are a _backstabbing moron._ " As she said those words she got closer and closer to Wheatley, eyeing the little sphere up and down. He, on the other hand, didn't know how to react. So he just tried to remain still yet he couldn't stop shaking, no matter how hard he tried.

"But I've been thinking about it for a while now, and I've realised that you can't help it. You can't help but be that pointlessly stupid." She said. 

Wheatley had no idea what she was going on about with this 'bring your kid to work day' and all this 'backstabbing' nonsense and frankly, he couldn't give a damn.

"After thinking about it for the past five months, I learned an even better lesson. That even if you are a backstabbing moron who left me alone for hundreds of years, put me in a potato, and destroyed my facility, then you can still be..." She said. "K-Killed?" He quivered. "Redeemed." She stated after pausing for a while at the last part, which left Wheatley's processors churning. 

"Um...sorry. Excuse me. What?" He asked, still baffled.

"That's why you're here," Gladys informed. 

Wheatley blinked his optic _once. Twice. Thrice. Whatever came after thrice...fourice?_ But no matter how much he blinked, everything that she had just said was still complete bonkers to him. 

"I-I'm here because...I, uh, 'backstabbed' you...which I, coincidentally, don't know anything about?" He questioned. 

"You don't remember anything from it because the scientists wiped your memory." She replied calmly. 

"You're mad," Wheatley responded in disbelief. 

Gladys sighed. "It won't make any sense until I bring your memories back. Just stay there and try not to squirm otherwise you'll fall apart." She advised. 

"F-F-Fall apart?" He stuttered. 

Suddenly he felt something thrust into his side. He yelped in pain, and for a split second he could see the central core looking at him with worry, deep in her yellow optic there was a flash of concern. But it vanished in an instant, like a child's wish. 

What happened next made his whole little world fall apart. Tons and tons of files flooded into him. They were of him...and her...together? Just as he started viewing one file another would pop up and catch his attention. There were so many he began to lose track of them all. But he knew one thing, all of the memories were hers. He was seeing through her optic. There was a voice in the background, one that he recognised as his. After flashing through all the memories he looked up at the central core in disbelief. She seemed to have an expectant look on her like she was waiting for him to say something.

She got so impatient that she decided to talk to him. "What do you think?" She asked. He noticed how happy she was. He noticed the little beeps in her voice that meant she was excited. It scared him how much he knew about the central core in front of him.

"You have to be pulling my leg, uh...right?" The sphere asked in a joking matter. 

He chuckled for half a minute but then fell silent when he realised she was not laughing. 

"I'm being completely serious." She stated. Her tone changed completely. Her body seemed more rigid than before and she was tense. 

"You actually think I'm going to buy that?" He retorted. She paused for a second so Wheatley took advantage of that. "I know I'm a _moron_ but I'm not _that stupid_ to just _'trust you'._ All of these files are probably all made up by you anyway." He imitated the bigger core in his last sentence. He pondered for a second on if she would pick up on what he was doing there. _See? He is a bloody genius._

"None of that is fabricated. And even if they were I wouldn't spend even a second of my time creating them and then getting you from space. It would've been too much of a hassle." She snapped back. 

"Yeah, but it makes sense, as uh, some kind of, weird revenge plot." He retaliated. 

Gladys went silent after that. Her body twisted slightly away from him, just barely enough that Wheatley could notice. "I suppose...you have a point there. But wouldn't you consider it better revenge to leave you wandering the black void up there alone?" She asked. 

She was surprisingly calm. Which scared the sphere. 

"I-I...uh...I...," He stumbled over his words trying to find some one-up to prove her wrong. But she was right. Being forced into solitude is definitely the perfect punishment for a robot. Since they live forever they'll have to think about everything they've done wrong, wondering why they were up there, for the rest of their lives unless they were lucky enough to rust before forever arrived.

The core above him sighed and then looked him directly in his eye. 

"What would I have to do to make you listen to me?" She inquired quietly. 

"I, um, I didn't hear you there. You might have to speak up." Wheatley chimed in. "I'll send you off to the repair ward." She replied, turning away from him. 

"Is...ward like a..uh...code name for incinerator or something?" Wheatley asked, genuinely curious as to what the strange word meant. Gladys giggled and didn't answer his question. 

" _Repair Incinerator._ " She mused to herself.

A few minutes later two bots entered the room. One tall one with an amber optic and a _much_ shorter with a blue optic. Ones that Wheatley recognised as his _'kidnappers'_. He wasn't exactly excited to see them. 

"Oh, you're finally here." She said as she turned towards the two bots. 

The taller bot made a series of clicks and beeps that the little sphere couldn't comprehend. But somehow she could understand them perfectly. He couldn't deny that she was pretty smart, even if he didn't like her and she wanted to kill him.

"You know what to do, but as soon as you've done it come back here. I'm not exactly finished with either of you yet." Gladys stated to them. 

The shorter robot made several beeps which he could only describe as a severe disappointment. The small robot then walked under him and jumped up with its arms reaching for him. Wheatley panicked and jumped up slightly. The robot beneath him grumbled and then it jumped up again for him. This time Wheatley didn't jump, because he realised that the robot was too short to reach him. The robot tried again and again to reach the sphere, yet he kept failing miserably. He got so mad that he began stomping about on the floor which made Wheatley burst out in laughter. The robot glared up at him, knowing that he will never reach him. 

Wheatley's laughter was cut abrupt when the orange-eyed robot plucked him out of the air without even standing on its tip-toes. The tall robot smacked the smaller one on the back of the head and then begun to leave the room. Wheatley had no idea where he was going and he was absolutely terrified. He assumed that it was that _'repair' incinerator._ That must've been the reason the core laughed earlier. It all made sense now. She must've thought he was stupid for thinking that he would survive. _Well, he'd show her. If he had a plan. Which he didn't._

The sphere began shaking at the thought of having to come up with a plan. Usually, Chell would do that for him. But they weren't exactly on speaking terms. He wished he didn't muck up as bad as he did with her, then _maybe_ he wouldn't be in this situation. But after pondering it for so long he got sick of it and would _much rather_ not think about her. 

He had no idea what to expect when he left her chambers and arrived at this _'repair ward'_. But it couldn't be good.

"Are we there yet?" He asked. 

Again the bots didn't reply. They just kept walking. At this point, they've been walking for god knows how long and frankly he was sick of it. He believed that if he was going to bloody die then he'd rather it be quick. Apparently, fate had many different plans, much longer plans. In deep thought over the matter, he unconsciously recalled a file that he'd pushed down ever since she stuck all those memories in him. Memories that weren't his but hers. He only saw a flash of it before he lost it again, but he remembered a very specific word; Heaven. He'd never heard of it before and as much as he tried he couldn't get it out of his mind. He just had to ask. 

"Do either of you fellas, uh, know about this... _heaven?"_ He asked. 

The only response he got out of the bots is a shrug from the blue one. Which didn't help him at all. But he didn't ponder over it for much longer since his optic took notice of a sign saying, _'repair ward'._ Even though earlier he wanted to get here a lot faster, now he was bloody terrified. His optic blinked around nervously taking the environment around him of what outside the incinerator looked like. It would be the last of his memories. The last he would ever think. The last he would ever talk. 

That terrified him most of all. 

Which is what pushed him to speak. 

"A-Actually can we not go here? Uh, I know she said this was you're job and all, but uh, we're both robots. Yes, we both are and we have to stick up for each other. Y'know what that means? Not going in that room and letting me get incinerated. We-We could work out some kind of deal!" He blabbered desperately trying to convince them not to go into that room. 

Once the doors started to open the sphere realised that he was done for. Nothing he could blabber on about could save him. He failed the one thing he could do, to talk himself out of any situation, no matter what. 

The helpless ball squeezed his eye shut in an attempt to block out the world. To block out the sight of fire as he's thrown away to his death and forgotten forever. He prepared for the pain he would feel as the flames swallowed him whole. The robot carrying him took a step forward but all he could see was pitch black. 

_If he couldn't see it, then he couldn't feel it. That's how it works right?_

He felt the cold hands holding him up in the air let go of him. He fell towards the pit, the pit of fire. And he screamed, louder than he had ever in his life. He collided with a rock hard surface and waited for the pain to kick in. For the flames to burn him alive. 

_That's...weird._

By this point, he would usually hear turrets scream out in pain as their bodies blackened to a crisp. But he didn't feel any pain after hitting the ground.

He tentatively opened his eye and glanced around. 

There was no fire. 

There was no overwhelming smoke. 

There were no charred voiceboxes. 

It was just...a completely sterile room. There were white mechanical arms that looked like that hadn't been used in years, yet they remained spotless. He soon realised that was sitting atop a shining white table. It was so polished that he could see his own reflection. Which wasn't exactly a good thing. 

"BLIMEY! I LOOK ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE!" He blurted out. 

He was glad there wasn't any fire in this room. Otherwise, he'd look _much worse._

The short blue robot rolled it's eye and turned to a tablet which it then proceeded to press a button on the pad. Suddenly there was an ear-splitting sound of a horn, one which petrified the poor little sphere, who began to shake on the table. 

"W-What was that?" He gasped, barely able to speak after such a loud sound. 

The short robot made an effort to laugh but to the sphere, it sounded more like a donkey's wheezing. This infuriated the other robot who hit the blue one on the back of the head then pushed him away. The taller robot pushed a different button on the console and before Wheatley knew it he was back up in the air.

"Do you mind if I ask, what, you're, uh, doing to me exactly?" He asked, his words laced with dread that was rising up inside of him. 

The orange, more feminine robot finally answered his question. There was just one, teensy, tiny problem, so minuscule that he never would've even thought about it. 

He couldn't understand what the bloody hell they were saying.

"Mind, uh, repeating that in English?" He coaxed. 

The robot responded with several incomprehensible beeps and then it began to walk away with its little amigo. Suddenly Wheatley felt like he was being moved to the right which only confused him. He glanced up and saw one of the mechanical arm's he saw in the corner of the room, except this time it was moving him somewhere. 

_Oh god. It was taking him to the incinerator, wasn't it?_

"W-Wait come back! I-I don't want to die! Please!" He begged but it was no use. 

The orange bot took one last look at him before she left, then she turned away sealing the door behind her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I finally wrote this. Honestly poor Wheatley his emotions are literally being thrown all over the place. But he's pretty much doing the same thing with her's even though he's not fully aware of it. Also, I just loved the 'repair incinerator' so much I just had to include it. It's another one of Wheatley's idiotic ideas. But I won't blame him too much since that's what he's designed to do. Also, this took really long to write because I kept feeling like the characters were becoming way too out of character, and I thought some points just dragged on too much so a lot got cut from this. How Wheatley calls her Gladys just makes my heart melt from nostalgia and love from reading 'My Little Moron.' Seriously read that before you read this, otherwise literally none of these little references will make any sense. Either way most of you won't read this anyway so I hope you like the story and just please, go check out 'My Little Moron.' I can't stress this enough. That story literally made me ship this. Thank you for reading and see you all in the next chapter! ;)


	3. Two: In Theory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In theory, it should have all worked out. 
> 
> But not every theory is right.

Pain radiated just above his optic. He woke up with a groan and was greeted by an unpleasant headache. He'd expected to be dead by now. But being still alive wasn't something he took for granted. He glanced around himself nervously, waiting for something to jump out at him. While looking around he realised he was back on his management rail and not in that repair incinerator. Then on an even better note, his upper handle was back. He spun around, ecstatic with the turn of events and chuckled to no one in particular. _God, he had missed this._ As much as he hated being restricted within these grey walls, it was nice to have some control of where he could go. He was just about to go on his merry way when he stopped. 

He had _absolutely no clue_ where he was going. He'd mapped out the entire facility by following almost all the rails that spanned across the place, but due to his lack of a strong memory, he forgot them instantly. Although the point was that there was nothing here for him. He'd technically already escaped this place once, and there were no humans just waiting around to try it out for another shot. So in a _hope_ to find some kind of purpose he pushed forward. Drifting onward, to who knows where in the _hope_ that something would catch his attention. To take him on a little adventure, as he had with that human. Except he would prefer for his next adventure to not end as horrifically as his last one had. 

Grey walls fanned out around him for miles and miles. He began to grow tired of the same-old structured rooms and the run-down halls. He was on the verge of giving up. He wanted to just sit there. Perhaps shut off for a few hundred years and then wake up like it was nothing. Although he had no idea if he could even _'sleep'_ for that long. And he still held onto that small spark of hope. The hope that the human would come back for him. Then save him from the monster lying in her great, big chassis somewhere in the depths of the facility. 

_Oh, he'd almost forgotten._

All those files swimming around in the back of his head. The ones he didn't want to think about. He'd only seen small flashes of them then he shoved them as far as he could from focus. It probably explained why he had such a bad ache. Temptation crawled its way into his little severs. As long as he knew they were lies... _then what would be the harm in taking a wee bit of a peak?_

He sat there pondering over the pros and cons of the situation. If he did look at them, then he might start believing in her lies and then he'd fall into her sickly, over-complicated trap! But he really loved secrets. One could say it was a guilty pleasure of his. And he bet that this folder was full of the best kinds of secrets. Ones he could... _manipulate._

Just as he was about to, something bright and flashing stole his attention. He moved towards the red light that flickered on and off, then on again. He tilted his chassis slightly in curiosity. He wondered why it was doing that. Beneath the light was a door to a test chamber. Luckily there was a hole in the wall which his maintenance rail conveniently ran right through. He perked up and sped right through it. He looked around the chamber excitedly. F _inally an adventure! A risk worth taking._

At first, he didn't notice anything exhilarating or of matter - it was just the usual test chamber. With buttons and lasers and an assortment of things that he couldn't comprehend the use of. Then his optic landed on the white bot placed in the centre of the chamber. His optic shrunk down to a pinprick. 

The turret jam-packed with bullets noticed him. They made eye-contact and remained like that for a few seconds. The red dot coming from the turret rose up to the centre of his eye. He trembled as he attempted to make his way slowly out of the room. But when the turret uttered the words, _"Target acquired,"_ he knew it was too late. 

Just as the turret was about to fire at the little sphere, a hole in the floor opened up beneath it. _"Uh oh."_ Was the turrets last words as it fell down the hole and eventually swallowed up by the endless darkness. He was left in silent shock. The panel then moved back into place and locked the turret down there forever. 

"I looked away for one second." She complained, her voice echoing through the chamber. 

"Oh...was that you? Who, uh, opened a massive pit in the floor just then?" He stuttered. 

"Who do you think it was?" She asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. 

"I was just checking." He mumbled, feeling slightly confronted from her tone. 

"You were simply checking for the possibility that a moronic sphere showed up, took control of my facility, put me in a potato and fed me to birds again?" She asked. 

"Yeah...that." He admitted. He was fully aware of how stupid it sounded...after she said it aloud. 

"What are you doing in there anyway? Didn't the flashing red light tell you _not_ to go in there?" She inquired. "I was...err...exploring." He half-lied. It was technically true...except it was more out of pure boredom. And he didn't want her to know that in case she came up with some crazy idea or trick to pull. 

"Test chambers are a usual place to do that, but then again, humans used to go exploring around dangerous places like jungles just for 'the thrill of it', so I shouldn't be too surprised." She replied.

"Yeah...odd creatures, _those humans."_ He said, finally finding something that he could understand from her words. 

"I already know that." She stated, her voice static with _'so much emotion'._ He didn't exactly know where to go with that. He thought for a moment and when he couldn't come up with anything, he just rolled back through the hole in the wall. And now he was back at the metal catwalk.

"Where are you going?" She questioned.

He was surprised, to say the least. He never thought that she actually cared enough to wonder about what he was doing. And how she said it as well...as if unaware of how strange it sounded coming from her. 

"What's it to you?" He retaliated since he wasn't too happy about her earlier attitude.

She paused then said, "Just making sure you don't ride headfirst into danger. _Again."_

He would've answered her question, but he didn't even know the answer himself. Then he got a brilliant idea, one that even she would be jealous of. 

"Do you have a map?" He asked, looking up in (hopefully) the direction of her lair. 

"Yes, but I don't believe you can read." And there she went off again, saying another insulting comment about him. "I can read and I'll prove it." He insisted firmly. "Then 'prove' it. I'll lead you to a map and you have to find where I'm hiding." 

It sounded simple enough. She was stuck to the ceiling in a room so it's not like she could go anywhere. There also weren't any red flags making their presence known, so he decided to go along with it. She then led him down a few hallways and two left turns. Before he knew it he was right in front of a map. After he found it she mentioned one rule she seemed to have forgotten about, "You have twenty minutes to find me. Actually...I might add a few fives. You have thirty minutes now." 

"What happens if I find you?" He asked. 

"You get a surprise." Her voice bubbled through the speaker.

"And if I don't?" 

"Now that's a surprise you wouldn't like." She stated. 

He wanted to ask if he could get a five-minute warning before it started but after she said that in such a...bleak tone, he didn't want to know the answer. So he got straight to work. Analysing the series of colours, shapes and weird symbols scrawled across the electronic map. There were also red dots small and big all across the map in the middle of squares which he assumed represented special rooms. The cogs in his head churched roughly, grinding against one another in an attempt to understand what he was looking at. 

"Do you need a hint?" Her voice asked which scared the bejesus out of the little sphere.

"No, I've got this." He reassured her. In fact, he had not got this. He was really only reassuring himself that he had.

He scanned the map over for anything he could recognise. Sure there were those endless rooms where all those test subjects were rotting away, and there was that one neurotoxin chamber that he recalled when he tried to escape - that was it. That was the way to her. He concentrated on the little red dot in front of him as hard as he could to stick it in his long-term memory. Once he believed he had it down-pact he raced off. Following the rail, he forced himself to go even faster. He didn't know how much time he had left but he knew he wasted a lot because she had offered to give him a hint. Which meant that he wasn't doing well - _in her eyes._ Just as he was getting on the right track he came to a fork in the rail. He looked between the two ways.

Maybe he should have paid more attention to the path to get there rather than the destination ahead. 

_Dammit._

"Are you, uh, s-still offering hints?" He asked hesitantly, as he lifted his lower eye plate hopefully. 

It took a few minutes for her to respond but when she did, it wasn't exactly the answer he was looking for.

"I thought you said that you've got this." She pointed out bluntly. 

"Yeah, well, I do have it under control, but a hint would be nice to confirm my theory. Y'know? Science stuff. Testin' and all that." He blabbered. 

"A scientist doesn't get _'free hints'_ when conducting an experiment to test their hypothesis." She responded bitterly. 

"Then...well...make me the first scientist to get that free hint." He prodded, trying to push her towards his favourable outcome. 

She made a sharp, loud noise which he thought was a laugh but it sounded so frightening that it couldn't have been one. "How about you figure it out like a _real_ scientist?" She asked smugly. "Fine! I will." He yelled. 

He looked back at the two directions in front of him. Well, you know what they say...left is right and right is left. So naturally, he went left. As he continued along the left pathway, it only seemed to go on and on, and he began to have his doubts about left being right. Then the dead-end confirmed his suspicions like a slap in the face.

"Ten minutes." She cooed from her chassis. 

He then pulled a one-eighty and rushed as fast as he could to get back to the fork in the road. The grey-panelled hallway seemed even longer on the way back than what he was led to believe. Eventually, he came back to the fork and this time took the right rail. 

Ironic really, the right _really_ was _right._

He kept going and after a few minutes he noticed a sealed door up ahead. He darted for it but he was forced to stop to wait for the damned door to open. Once it did he entered the next room and recognise the massive white tank immediately. He weaved up and around it on his rail. The sound of turrets screaming to their deaths as they fell into the depths of the incinerator were music to his non-existent ears. Although he didn't like the memory of being with that _human_ here. Not that he hated her...he just didn't want to think about it for much longer. He followed the rail up beside the elevator's rails and repressed the memories of the test-subject from his mind. 

Then he was confronted by **that** door.

He waited in front of it, and longingly shot a few glances over at the red button; which he knew now was the only way in. The button was just sitting there, unpressed, taunting him. 

"What are you waiting for?" Her voice cracked through the silence. 

"The door...has a button." He sighed, having given defeat to the all-powerful metallic contraption and its sidekick, impossible to press button.

"You know that you could just-...nevermind. Let me get that." She replied.

The door opened in an instant and his optic lit up just as fast. "Err...thanks." He muttered, still ashamed to rely on her for something so...simple. She didn't reply so he took that as an opportunity to avoid any more awkward silence and he entered the next room. He looked at the tube to his right, still sucking all the air out. 

_Guess she never fixed that._

He rolled out into the next room towards the massive vacuum. Then before he knew it, he was sucked off his rail and into the glass tubing. He flew through the glass, bumping against it every now and then. He spun around, free as a bird, in the tiny shaft. He was so ecstatic to feel that feeling again. The feeling of everything rushing by him as he whizzed through the air. "Never thought I'd be doing this again but here we are!" He exclaimed into the void of twisting tubes. 

The happiness that came out at that moment had died down. There was no one here. She could probably hear him but she hadn't said anything for a while. He looked around at the expansive space that surrounded him. He stared out at how big it all was, how it once revolved all around him and what he told it to do, for a mere several hours. It felt so long ago. Now he was nothing to this facility. Just a mere cog that had outrun his use-by date. Here, in this area, he saw just how pointless he was too it all. How useless he was. How there truly was no reason for her to drag him all the way back here. Other than...

Just ahead of him another piece of tubing connected to the one he was riding. And he was hurtling right for it. His first reaction was to panic and frantically try to wobble away from it. His second reaction was to try to stop moving by sticking his handles above and beneath him. But the force of the vacuum was too strong. So when he realised that it wasn't going to work, his third and final reaction was to scream as he plummeted down. His cry rang throughout the vast nothing desperately. No matter how hard he screamed no one came to his aid.

Then the tube curved, turning around and around, weaving circles and spinning hs dizzying head in dozens of directions. Finally, the tube came to an end and he plopped face-first into the cold, grey floor with a muffled, "Ow..."

"I take it you had a good time?" She snickered. 

Her voice was a lot louder than on the speakers and a lot more clearly than before. All he had to do was flop his handles around weakly and wait for her to pick him up. She then sent those arms down and they lifted him off the ground. He was spun 'round and he stared up at her great body anxiously. "S-So?" He asked, urging her to speak.

"So...congratulations. You surprisingly did it." She replied. 

"Haha! Yes!" He cheered out happily, barely able to contain his excitement. "So about that surprise." She said, adjusting her position slightly. 

"Yeah about that...what exactly is it?" He asked. 

She shifted in her chassis and replied slyly, "It's a proposition." 

He raised his handle slightly just to get across to how that wasn't the kind of surprise he was expecting. He was expecting something more fun and less business...y. "Oh come on. Give me a break. I thought really hard over this." She condemned. 

"Fine. I'll hear out whatever you have to say, no matter how...rude." He chided. 

She sighed and changed her position yet again so that most of her body was side-on from him except her head, which she kept angled towards him. "Listen, I know we've had our differences but, I've been thinking; why don't you connect yourself to my mainframe?" 

He looked at her in disbelief. She wanted him to connect to the mainframe? After what he had done to her? After what he had put her through? This had to be a trap. 

"And why would I agree to that?" He asked.

"I'm not stupid. You roam the halls of Aperture in discontent with all the goods I have left at your disposal. So I'm simply offering you a form of entertainment." She explained. 

"This is a rather attractive offer." He noted.

He went over it in that big mainframe of his. As much as he loathed her, it would be better than being alone. And she sometimes listened to him. AND he wouldn't have to run around the facility playing games for small children. Then he noticed a flaw, a dent in her deal which could break the whole thing apart. 

"Wait a minute." He called as he had just escaped his deep thought. She hummed in response as her optic looked him up and down. 

"There are literally no benefits for you from this." He said sternly.

"Yes, there is. With you here, I don't have to worry about a moronic little ball destroying my facility. So then I can put all my focus on _testing."_ She objected. 

He rolled his optic. Here she went off again about her love for testin'. 

"Do you like anything that isn't related to in any way, shape or form, testin'?" He asked. 

She wavered for a moment and then asked, "So how does it sound?"

He purposefully took his time to answer her, as a little way of ticking her off. Start with the small things then get bigger and bigger. "Fine, I agree with your little offer." He replied eventually. Surprisingly in a millisecond, she lifted him towards her chassis and in the blink of an eye, he was connected. He instantly felt her power surge throughout him, making him believe that he was just as mighty. Once he got over the intense bliss that flowed through him, he looked down to the ground. He was so high up that the ground seemed so small. 

"Bloody hell, that's really high up." He muttered. 

_Did you really forget that you don't have to speak aloud?_

_Yeah, I know. Just talking to myself._

_Okay then._

She simply dismissed him just as fast as he had entered her system. Her processors were whirring quickly yet so quietly that he thought she didn't have any, or that he was just making the sounds up to disrupt the silence. Which irritated him. He waited for her to give him that entertainment that she had promise. But the longer he was forced to wait, the more he doubted her words. So he decided to bring the matter back to her attention over whatever she was thinking about. 

_Excuse me?_ He asked quietly. 

_What is it?_

She seemed a lot grumpier than before. 

_You forgot the end of the deal where you give me what I want._

_I'm trying to find something simple. Be patient._

_But you promised! And well I don't exactly have much of that patience you talk so highly of._

A computerised sigh escaped her. _If you don't shut up I will corrupt you._

His optic darted around nervously. He wobbled from side to side frantically. He wasn't sure if she was joking or being serious; but with her, it could actually mean both. And it didn't help that he couldn't see her at all. 

After a while of nerve-racking silence, he concluded that she had lost interest with him, or was too busy to care any longer. Which calmed his qualms a little. Then he remembered the perfect thing to distract himself with: those files. This time instead of seeing brief images and grasping only bits and pieces of the lies she built, he was going to search extensively through them, for any chinks in her polished armour. And that's what he did. For six entire hours. Until the lights went out. He felt her unplug herself out of consciousness and into her own shutdown. He scrambled to close the files so that he wouldn't interrupt her sleep or get caught in his act. 

He stayed up in the darkness, while she rested. He was too afraid to shut down, of what she would do to him once he turned himself off. The gentle hum of her processors numbed his fear in the pitch black. Eventually, he was growing so exhausted that every few minutes he'd drift off into semi-consciousness and every time he came close to shutting down he shook himself awake. 

After fighting the long battle against sleep he eventually gave in. In the dark, he felt terrified out of his mind. But after he shut off, he didn't have to concern himself with stupid phobias anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This hurt to write.   
> Also, I might want to address the elephant in the room, why GLaDOS is a jerk to him even though she dragged his butt all the way from space. Well, this is because I see her as more childish in nature so when she doesn't get what she wants she gets very pissy. And she's very pissy because he took it as one big massive joke when she's literally putting her heart out to him. He, on the other hand, sees everything she is trying to do as trying to kill him, yet he's slightly changing his mind over time since he's beginning to realise what she actually meant. He needs time guys he's a moron who needs to figure it out for himself. I feel sorry for GLaDOS, she's going to be waiting years for him to come back. Also ATLAS and P-Body aren't in this chapter at all because again the story revolves around these two idiots in love. But trust me they are coming back for their own little small scenes.


End file.
